{"id":118766,"date":"2026-09-11T21:49:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/publikasjoner\/simulation-of-volcanic-ash-ingestion-into-a-large-aero-engine-particle-fan-interactions\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T21:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:49:01","slug":"simulation-of-volcanic-ash-ingestion-into-a-large-aero-engine-particle-fan-interactions","status":"publish","type":"nva_publication","link":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/publications\/simulation-of-volcanic-ash-ingestion-into-a-large-aero-engine-particle-fan-interactions\/","title":{"rendered":"Simulation of volcanic ash ingestion into a large aero engine: particle\u2013fan interactions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Volcanic ash (VA) clouds in flight corridors present a significant threat to aircraft operations<br \/>\nas VA particles can cause damage to gas turbine engine components that lead to a<br \/>\nreduction of engine performance and compromise flight safety. In the last decade,<br \/>\nresearch has mainly focused on processes such as erosion of compressor blades and<br \/>\nstatic components caused by impinging ash particles as well as clogging and\/or corrosion<br \/>\neffects of soft or molten ash particles on hot section turbine airfoils and components.<br \/>\nHowever, there is a lack of information on how the fan separates ingested VA particles<br \/>\nfrom the core stream flow into the bypass flow and therefore influences the mass concentration<br \/>\ninside the engine core section, which is most vulnerable and critical for safety. In<br \/>\nthis numerical simulation study, we investigated the VA particle\u2013fan interactions and<br \/>\nresulting reductions in particle mass concentrations entering the engine core section as a<br \/>\nfunction of particle size, fan rotation rate, and for two different flight altitudes. For this,<br \/>\nwe used a high-bypass gas-turbine engine design, with representative intake, fan, spinner,<br \/>\nand splitter geometries for numerical computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations<br \/>\nincluding a Lagrangian particle-tracking algorithm. Our results reveal that<br \/>\nparticle\u2013fan interactions redirect particles from the core stream flow into the bypass<br \/>\nstream tube, which leads to a significant particle mass concentration reduction inside the<br \/>\nengine core section. The results also show that the particle\u2013fan interactions increase<br \/>\nwith increasing fan rotation rates and VA particle size. Depending on ingested VA size<br \/>\ndistributions, the particle mass inside the engine core flow can be up to 30% reduced<br \/>\ncompared to the incoming particle mass flow. The presented results enable future calculations<br \/>\nof effective core flow exposure or dosages based on simulated or observed atmospheric<br \/>\nVA particle size distribution, which is required to quantify engine failure<br \/>\nmechanisms after exposure to VA. As an example, we applied our methodology to a<br \/>\nrecent aircraft encounter during the Mt. Kelud 2014 eruption. Based on ambient VA concentrations<br \/>\nsimulated with an atmospheric particle dispersion model (FLEXPART), we<br \/>\ncalculated the effective particle mass concentration inside the core stream flow along the<br \/>\nactual flight track and compared it with the whole engine exposure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_id":"","_status":"PUBLISHED","_sync_date":"2026-09-11 14:36:51","footnotes":""},"nva_tax_category":[1099],"class_list":["post-118766","nva_publication","type-nva_publication","status-publish","hentry","nva_tax_category-scientific-journal-publication"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_publication\/118766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_publication"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nva_publication"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_publication\/118766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"nva_tax_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_tax_category?post=118766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}